The Birth of Venturing Crew 32

Founding Committee Chairman Rett Campbell

Venturing Crew 32 was founded in the winter of 2001, at the Pennington Road Fire Company, in Ewing, NJ. Venturing is the coeducational high adventure program offered to youth ages 14 through 21 by the Boy Scouts of America.

Several years earlier, Rett Campbell, Scoutmaster of a local Boy Scout troop, faced an issue in his troop: for several reasons the older boys were leaving Scouting. One thing that he couldn’t change was the BSA rule that states on his 18 th birthday, a boy must retire from the Boy Scouts. In an attempt to keep boys in scouting, boys were added to a “youth cadre” of Assistant Scoutmasters. They weren’t given specific assignments in the troop, but were really just “older Boy Scouts.’ By the time, the troop amassed nine assistants’, it was clear that this was not a viable solution.

Around that time, Eagle Scout and former Senior Patrol Leader Michael Snook had passed his 18th birthday and made his application to his Scoutmaster for an assistant’s position. During the ensuing discussion, Rett asked Mike: “As assistant Scoutmaster, what will you contribute to your Troop?” One idea proposed was the developing of a Venture Patrol in the troop, in an effort to retain the older boys, ages 15 through 18, who were leaving to pursue other interests. Venture Patrols focus on high adventure outdoor challenges, such as rock climbing and white water rafting, and are usually restricted to older boys, sometimes with an advanced scouting rank. The idea of this kind of patrol met with an unfavorable reaction. The older assistant scoutmasters felt a Venture Patrol was discriminatory to the younger scouts. They missed the point of the Venture Patrol - that of reward for older scouts, and of goal for the younger scouts. A Venturing Patrol was not to be.

Another idea arose. In 1998, Scouting started a new program. With roots in the Scout’s Explorer program, but an updated focus on high adventure, and open to girls as well as boys, Venturing seemed to be what Mike and Rett were looking for. The idea of the Venturing Crew was not well received by the Assistant Scoutmasters or the Troop Committee chairman. They felt again that this program discriminated against the younger Boy Scouts. In many ways, they were right. However, it was developed to separate the older boys into a unit away from those under 14. Many High Adventure activities are forbidden to youth who have not attained their thirteenth or fourteenth birthday. The other troop leaders also felt that having another unit at the same charter organization would be a problem.

The search for a home for the new unit went on the road. Mike and Rett began a quiet recruiting campaign, for youth members as well as leaders. Potential Charter Organizations were visited in Trenton , Lawrence , Hopewell Township , and Pennington, before the Council Field Director Rett went to the members of the Pennington Road Fire Company. The members of the fire company liked the idea of sponsoring the Scouts, and supporting a High Adventure program. Some of the Scouts liked community service enough to become EMT’s or Firefighters. Taking the number of the Fire Company, and with Mike Snook as our first president, we chartered on March 1, 2001 , as Venturing Crew 32.